Dolittle (film)
| screenplay = | story = Thomas Shepherd | based on = | starring = | music = Danny Elfman | cinematography = Guillermo Navarro | editing = | studio = | distributor = Universal Pictures | released = | runtime = 101 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = $175 million | gross = $130.9 million }} Dolittle (also referred to as The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle) is a 2020 American fantasy adventure film directed by Stephen Gaghan, from a screenplay by Gaghan, Dan Gregor, and Doug Mand, from a story by Thomas Shepherd. A reboot of the [[Doctor Dolittle (1967 film)|original Doctor Dolittle film]] and its modern comedy counterparts, the film is based on the titular character created by Hugh Lofting, and primarily inspired by The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle. Robert Downey Jr. stars as the title character, alongside Antonio Banderas and Michael Sheen in live-action roles. The voice cast includes Emma Thompson, Rami Malek, John Cena, Kumail Nanjiani, Octavia Spencer, Tom Holland, Craig Robinson, Ralph Fiennes, Selena Gomez, and Marion Cotillard. The project was announced in March 2017 with Downey Jr. set to star, and the rest of the cast joined over the following year. Filming began in March 2018 and lasted through June, taking place around the United Kingdom. The film underwent three weeks of reshoots in the spring of 2019, under the supervision of Jonathan Liebesman and Chris McKay, after initial test screenings yielded poor results. Dolittle was theatrically released in the United States on January 17, 2020, by Universal Pictures. The film received negative reviews from critics for its humor and its incoherent story, and has grossed $130.9 million worldwide against a production budget of $175 million. Plot Dr. John Dolittle (Robert Downey Jr.), is a vet who has the ability to communicate with animals. After his wife, Lily (Kasia Smutniak) dies at sea, Dolittle confines himself to his home, tending to only animals and refusing to contact or assist with other humans. One day, a boy named Tommy Stubbins (Harry Collett), accidentally shoots and wounds a squirrel named Kevin (Craig Robinson), and decides to go to Dolittle for help. Meanwhile, Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley), sends a message, ordering Dolittle to come in order to try to cure her of a deadly sickness. After being persuaded by Polynesia the Macaw (Emma Thompson), Dolittle finally decides to go. Upon reaching her, he finds that the Queen has eaten a poisonous type of nightshade. To be cured, she must eat a fruit from a land far away. Dolittle, Tommy, and a crew of animals put to sail, hoping to find the cure while trying to avoid Dolittle's lifelong rival, Dr. Blair Müdfly (Michael Sheen). Dolittle leaves his dog, Jip (Tom Holland) and a stick insect behind to watch over the Queen while he's away. Along the way, Dolittle's boat is attacked by Dr. Blair Müdfly, but they manage to escape by attaching a harness to a humpback whale that pulls the boat to safety. However, Dolittle is soon captured by King Rassouli (Antonio Banderas), his former father-in-law, and is locked in a cage with Barry (Ralph Fiennes), a cranky tiger only looking for his mother's approval. Just when it seem Dolittle is in trouble, Chee-Chee the Gorilla (Rami Malek) breaks in and attacks Barry. Dolittle and Stubbins escape only to be captured by Müdfly and have their ship destroyed. After seeing a saddened Dolittle, Rassouli loans him a boat to honour his daughter. Dolittle and company arrive at an island where they meet Ginko-Who-Soars (Frances de la Tour), a fire breathing dragon. Ginko begins attacking before she collapses due to internal pain. Dolittle figures out what is hurting the dragon and proceeds to remove armour and bagpipes (from previously eaten trespassers) from her behind. Relieved and thankful, Ginko shows Dolittle the tree with the cure. Stubbins gives the queen the plant which cures her. Dolittle’s stick bug reveals that Lord Thomas Badgley (Jim Broadbent), one of the Queen's chairmen, poisoned her in order to take the crown for himself; the queen has him arrested for treason. Dolittle re-opens the doors to his sanctuary, now including Stubbins. In a mid-credits scene, we see Müdfly trying to communicate with bats that turn around and attack him. Cast * Robert Downey Jr. as Dr. John Dolittle, a widowed veterinarian who has the ability to speak to animals. * Antonio Banderas as Rassouli, the king of pirates, who was Lily's father and Dolittle’s father-in-law. * Michael Sheen as Dr. Blair Müdfly, an old schoolmate and rival of Dolittle. * Harry Collett as Tommy Stubbins, Dolittle's self-appointed apprentice. * Jim Broadbent as Lord Thomas Badgley, one of the Queen's chairmen. * Jessie Buckley as Queen Victoria, the Queen of England. * Carmel Laniado as Lady Rose, a maid of honor to the Queen and Tommy's friend. * Ralph Ineson as Arnall Stubbins, Tommy's uncle and Dolittle's favorite shoemaker. * Joanna Page as Bethan Stubbins, Tommy's aunt. * Sonny Ashbourne Serkis as Arnall Stubbins Jr., Tommy's cousin. * Kasia Smutniak as Lily Dolittle, Dolittle's deceased wife. Voices * Emma Thompson as Polynesia, a wise and headstrong macaw and Dolittle’s most trusted advisor. * Rami Malek as Chee-Chee, an anxious but noble gorilla. * John Cena as Yoshi, an upbeat polar bear who wears a bashlyk. * Kumail Nanjiani as Plimpton, a cynical and fussy but well-meaning ostrich who wears striped stockings and quarrels with Yoshi. * Octavia Spencer as Dab-Dab, an enthusiastic and crazy duck with a wooden leg. * Tom Holland as Jip, a loyal lurcher who wears glasses. * Craig Robinson as Kevin, a crazy squirrel with attitude. * Ralph Fiennes as Barry, a ferocious tiger with gold-tipped fangs who has a past with Dolittle. * Selena Gomez as Betsy, a friendly giraffe. * Marion Cotillard as Tutu, a French fox who is friends with Betsy. * Jason Mantzoukas as James, a wisecracking dragonfly who meets Dolittle in a prison cell from which he helps him escape. * Frances de la Tour as Ginko-Who-Soars, a fire-breathing dragon who guards a magical fruit. * Nick. A. Fisher as Mini, a sweet sugar glider. Production On March 20, 2017, it was announced that Robert Downey Jr. would star in The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle, a feature adaptation of The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle. In December 2017, Harry Collett and Jim Broadbent were cast. In February 2018, Antonio Banderas and Michael Sheen were cast in live-action roles, while Tom Holland, Emma Thompson, Ralph Fiennes, and Selena Gomez were cast to voice animals, including a tiger, bear, and a lioness. In March 2018, Kumail Nanjiani, Octavia Spencer, John Cena, Rami Malek, Craig Robinson, Marion Cotillard, Frances de la Tour and Carmen Ejogo joined the voice cast. The character of Regine, a lioness voiced by Ejogo, was cut from the finished film. Principal production commenced mid-February in 2018. Live-action scenes began filming in Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria in May 2018, with further location filming at South Forest, Windsor Great Park and on the Menai Suspension Bridge in North West Wales, in June 2018. In April 2019, it was reported the film had undergone 21 days of re-shoots following poor test screenings. Director Jonathan Liebesman helped to oversee the filming alongside Gaghan, while Chris McKay helped write new material after it became clear from first cuts that the comedy elements of the film were not coming together as well as the producers had hoped. Prior to this, Universal had turned towards Seth Rogen and Neighbors co-writer Brendan O'Brien to help make the film funnier. However, neither could remain committed to the project and dropped out. McKay was assigned to storyboard sequences and assemble different edits before later leaving to instead direct The Tomorrow War. Liebesman took over McKay's duties and finished the film alongside Gaghan. The Lego Batman Movie scribe John Whittington had performed rewrites on the script amid reshoots and had flown to London to meet with Downey, who allegedly tore Whittington's script apart in favor of "new ideas". The Hollywood Reporter claims that despite a "challenged production" there were no fights for power and no competing cuts for the film. In August 2019, it was reported that the film's title had been changed from The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle to simply Dolittle. In January 2020, Robert Downey Jr discussed on Joe Rogan's podcast (The Joe Rogan Experience) that the premise of the Dr. Dolittle character in his film stemmed from a Welsh neo-pagan physician called William Price. In the podcast he said: "Same way I did with Iron Man.. all right there's something here and then before I signed on, I was just googling 'weirdest Welsh doctor', I just wanted to think of, I don't want to just do another English accent.. so there was this guy called William Price, who's a nutty Welsh doctor, he was a neo-druidist, he believed that he could communicate with all nature and all that stuff, so I sent a picture of this wild looking guy wearing this kind of suit with stars on it and like a staff in his hand, so I sent that to Gaghan and he goes, "That looks good to me" and I was like "great let's do this movie"".https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5XTDmm0KUQ Music artist Sia performed a new song of hers called "Original" for the end credits, while Danny Elfman composed the film's score.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBEUQjt1-iE Release The film was originally going to be released on May 24, 2019, by Universal Pictures but was moved to April 12, 2019, to avoid competition with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (which was later moved to December 20, 2019). It was later pushed back to January 17, 2020. Reception Box office , Dolittle has grossed $56.8 million in the United States and Canada, and $74.1 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $130.9 million, against a production budget of $175 million. Due to its high production and marketing costs, the film will need to gross around $500 million in order to break-even; following its debut weekend, it was estimated the film would lose the studio between $50–100 million. In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $20–22 million from 4,155 theaters in its opening weekend, and a total of around $27 million over the four-day Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. It made $6.3 million on its first day, including $925,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $22 million (and $29.5 million over the four-day frame), finishing third behind fellow newcomer Bad Boys for Life and holdover 1917. The film made $12.1 million in its second weekend and $7.7 million in its third, remaining in third both times. Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 16% based on 179 reviews with an average rating of 3.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Dolittle may be enough to entertain very young viewers, but they deserve better than this rote adaptation's jumbled story and stale humor." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 27 out of 100, based on 43 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported an average 3 out of 5 stars. Courtney Howard of Variety called the film a "frenetic, crass kids' flick" and wrote: "What should have been an awe-filled adventure quickly curdles into an awful one, thanks to a pedestrian formula and the filmmakers' fixation on fart jokes." Writing for The Hollywood Reporter, Todd McCarthy said that "From the very first scene, it's clear something is terribly off with this lavishly misbegotten attempt to repopularize an animal-loaded literary franchise that was born exactly a century ago. The oddly diffident star and executive producer Robert Downey Jr. never finds the power-supplying third rail needed to energize a tale that fails to make a real case for being reinterpreted". References External links * * * Category:2020 films Category:2020 fantasy films Category:2020s children's fantasy films Category:2020s fantasy films Category:American films Category:Doctor Dolittle films Category:English-language films Category:Films about animals Category:Films directed by Stephen Gaghan Category:Films shot at Shepperton Studios Category:Films shot in England Category:Films shot in Wales Category:Films with screenplays by Stephen Gaghan Category:Motion capture in film Category:Universal Pictures films Category:Films scored by Danny Elfman Category:Film scores by Chris Bacon (composer)